Well the year is done!! I have finally finished my playing year and it has to be said that the past few weeks have made my year. I managed to finish off these last two days shooting even par yesterday and 1 under today for a 4 under par total and finishing in a tie for 15th and after the count backs I am in position 18 from Q School.

I am hopeful that this will be good enough to get me into most of the events on the Aussie Tour next year and that coupled with the Japanese Tour will certainly give me a great schedule for next year. I am so excited at the thought of next year already!!

It will be awesome however to have a great few weeks off before doing some testing of new gear in Jan before the Aussie Tour kicks off again in Feb.

Thanks to everyone for your support throughout the year and in particular, Callaway, Cricks Noosa, Endura and Cutter & Buck!!

As for now I am looking forward to getting home to my family, and getting my holiday on!!! Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year everyone!!

Well I am two days down in the Final Stage of Aussie Q School. The most exciting part of that is that I am 2 days away from HOLIDAYS!!! I am in Melbourne this week at Peninsula Golf Club playing the north course for 4 days. There is 36 holes at this facility with the North course being the better of the two.

The weather has been a little strange for the first two days, overcast and quite cool in the mornings before the cloud finally burning off mid morning to nice sunny days. This morning though, I was amazed that a week out from Christmas in the Aussie Summer, I was wearing a jumper and actually cool in that! To put that into perspective at how crazy the weather is here in Melbourne, tomorrow is predicted to get to 40 degrees!!

I was very rusty yesterday in both my actual game and also my mental game. I was sloppy and it certainly showed that I had barely touched a club since I finished in Japan last Tuesday. I shot 1 over which wasn't too bad considering I was 3 over through the first 5 holes. Today didn't start a whole lot better, 3 putts on the first green to start with a bogey. I know all too well by now that the old bogey on the first routine often leads to good rounds so I was not stressed at all. In fact I have been very relaxed for two days as it is kind of a "free hit" for me this week. I already have some status on tour for next year here in Aus and so this week is all about trying to improve that status. If I am able to finish anywhere inside the top 25 here I will improve my position.

The round today did turn around with 5 birdies coming by the end of the day and no more bogies meaning a 4 under par 68 for the day. It certainly could have been a little better had I made a couple of putts, I am putting well but the greens are tough to read and have very subtle breaks in them. I think I will be reasonably place in the scheme of things but am 10 behind the leader. I played with him and he is 13 under for two days. He has played great, holed putts and has holed 3 lob wedge shots from about 50-60m in two days. I dare say his amateur days are nearly behind him. Holing 3 shots from the fairway in two days is unbelievable!! My 4 under today was a good score but it honestly felt like I had over par when he shot 8 under with 2 of those hole outs today!! Good luck to him, he was a great young guy.

I look forward to hopefully getting that top 25 finish and can't wait to start some much needed time off after such an intense end to the year. Hop

We were met with the worst conditions of the week for the final round, blowing a gale and raining off and on to add to the cold and the pressure of the final day!!

I started the final day in t36th position and needed to hopefully get inside the top 30 by the end of the day. I started solidly narrowly missing birdie on the first and hitting my second shot onto the green on the par 5 2nd hole leaving an eagle opportunity. It was a long putt though, some 80-100 feet! I hit a pretty good first putt but came up 6ft short. I missed the birdie putt leaving it short in the heart, not a great feeling on a day where birdies were at an absolute premium. Fortunately I made birdie at the next after playing a perfect hole and making the birdie putt from around 10ft.

The next hole was probably the biggest moment of the day. A par three playing down wind from the right with an 8 iron. I hit it a little left of my target so the ball started at the pin which was cut tight to the left side of the green. Halfway to the green the wind smacked the ball to the left and it was heading to the bunker. Only seconds later I realised that the wind really had it and it was no in danger of missing the 3-4m wide bunker. It did, it flew over the bunker by 1 foot, the problem was that 1 foot left of the bunker, some 7-8m left of the pin location, was out of bounds!! Goodbye ball!! How I mentally accepted that from not really a bad shot, was pivotal in my day. I took it on the chin, hit my 3rd into the green and two putted for a double bogey 5. Without fuss I handed my putter to Dave and onwards we went. Under the pressure of the day it would have been far easier to whinge at that point and complain how unlucky that was but more importantly it was about the next shot that mattered.

I played a super 5th hole but missed the putt for birdie, although I backed that hole up with a great birdie at the 6th. Having chances at 7 and 8 that I didn't convert it was kind of a relief to make birdie on 9 back into the wind over the water to turn in 1 under.

So with nine to play and being about to play our 100th hole of the tournament we were 11under and certainly had given ourselves every chance of getting my tour card. The conditions were terrible, it was still raining on and off and the wind was extreme to play golf in!! The harder the better I thought though!!

I birdied 11 and bogied 15 to solidly get through to the final 3 holes of this marathon probably with the feeling we needed 2 birdies to be safe. I had a 30 footer on 16 which i missed and about 15 foot on 17 for birdie that I just missed too. The 18th was a par 5 and so my thoughts were to finish with an eagle to get the job done. After a good drive and second I had about 55m to the hole from the rough just short left of the green. I hit a great shot that was right on line but stopped about 10 feet short. Given that one of my playing partners had only 3 feet to the hole for his birdie to get to 12 under I knew I needed to make it. Every shot matters and with a count back system being used to split ties and give you a specific finishing position it was critical I made this putt. I didn't change anything, just saw the line and tried to roll it on it, it went in dead centre much to my relief. It was all over, 108 holes of both physical and mental challenge, playing for a chance to have a job next year.

The stress hadn't finished though as the nervous wait for all of the other scores to come in over the next 2 hrs had just begun. Was 12 under going to be enough??

I packed my gear up and paid my bill and Dave and I headed for the hotel. Anything to occupy us for the next couple of hours. Finally after hitting the refresh button a few times the scores were up, I madly tried to see my name and the elation of seeing it at number 22 was enormous!! I couldn't believe it, what a great result and tears of joy were coming down my face. I raced across the corridor and knocked on Dave's door, when he surfaced I asked had he seen the scores? He said no and I said "22 baby!!!!" He was just as elated as his work this week getting me through has been enormous!! We shared a man hug and then spent a few minutes reflecting on the week that was!!

I have my tour card for the Japanese Tour for 2014!! I am very excited and I guess this means a few more blogs from Japan next year.

Thanks for the support everyone this week and particularly my wife Rach for her incredible strength love and support!! She is amazing and it makes all of this worthwhile knowing I am trying to build a future for her and the kids.

Next week is the Aussie Finals and hopefully a great result there too!!

My old boss Darren Richards from Indooroopilly Golf Club once told me something during the Qld Trainee Champs that I have never forgotten, "Sometimes your best rounds start with a bogey." Today I started with a bogey and as I walked to the 2nd tee I said to Dave that exact line, word for word. I must have told him it before as he responded with, "Darren Richards!"

It was quickly rectified as I hit a great shot into the second and made the putt for birdie. That was followed by another at the par 3 12th, my 3rd hole for the day. It was a great relief to finally make a birdie on a par three as they have been killing me this week. I was away and was feeling like I was now moving in the right direction. Despite having chances on the next 3 holes I didn't make any of the putts and had to settle for 3 pars. The par three next saw me miss the green long and left leaving a very difficult up and down to try and save par. When we got to the ball it was made worse by the fact that my ball was in a divot…..again. The strangest thing is that before the round today I decided to hit a few chip shots in practice out of divots. Murray Lott taught me a great technique for this shot whilst we were at the Aussie Open and I just decided to play a few this morning in my warm up. How fortunate as I was now faced with one. I hit a brilliant shot, sublime might have even been the word I used to describe it at the time with Dave! It was a great shot and allowed me to save par at an important time, just to keep the round going.

Pars at the 8th and 9th holes of my day saw me turn in -1 despite having a few good looks at birdie. I was getting a little anxious at that point as I new today was an important day to move forward. I played a perfect 10th hole but missed the birdie chance before finding the first cut of rough down the left side of the next hole. It is a par 5 and the left side leaves you a little blocked out by trees for your second shot, making it a completely blind shot over them if you choose to take it on. I opted to have a crack and hit a great high 2nd shot onto the left fringe of the green only about 5-6m from the hole. It is strange how things panned out today on course as before play this morning for some random reason I decided to hit a few fringe putts in practice. And now here I was with a fringe putt and it actually had the exact same amount of left to right break to it as well. I made it for eagle and felt like that was the kick start my back nine needed.

I played a perfect next hole on the short par for and converted my 5 foot putt for birdie before making one from around 30ft on the next for birdie too. I was on a role and with the holes I had left could really see an opportunity to make a few more birdies. I missed chances at the next two holes but made one at the par 4 16th hole of my day to get to 6 under. Now I stood on the par 3 where I had earlier in the week found the out of bounds and made a triple bogey. I had talked about this hole with Dave this morning saying we wanted to be really specific about the type of shot we were going to hit to make sure that I had a vivid picture of what I was wanting. We did that and I hit a great 4 iron that never left the flagstick just missing flying in the hole and leaving another good birdie chance. I hit a great putt but watched it curl around behind the hole. I played the 18th hole perfectly with a great drive and super second to have yet another chance at birdie but this one was a slick putt and in opting to make sure I didn't rush it by with adrenaline of shooting 7 under I made sure that it was a front edge speed putt. Because of that I just under read the break and it just ran over the lip and missed. Still, 6 under on day 5 was a very solid day and moved me up considerably in the overall standings.

My job is by no means done and I have one more good round to find in me for tomorrow. It has been a massive schedule with the Aussie Open and 6 rounds in 7 days there followed by one travel day and now 8 days in a row here. I am hoping and praying the fitness work I do will help me churn out one more good day at least before I can have a few days off. Thanks everyone for your support and I hope by tomorrow night I will get a high enough finish to get some main tour starts up here in 2014. The weather is predicted to be very average tomorrow so it's time for this little Qlder to stand up and show some serious ticker. Catch you tomorrow night with some good news hopefully!!

Well normally at this point I am giving you the final update on my week, 4 rounds played and the final placings are done. This week, marathon week is the toughy as we have only just reached cut day!! This week is obviously a little different too in that over 200 players are teeing it up and the cut is the top 90 and ties, a lot more than a normal event. Once you have made the top 90 you have officially become a part of the Japanese Tour but it really depends on how high up you finish as to whether you will actually get any starts on the main tour. If not you will have to play on the Challenge Tour which is their secondary tour.

Yesterday I really struggled on the greens, I played ok tee to green as I have all week up here but if you aren't getting the ball in the hole it makes life very tough. I have actually struggled all week to make the "key putts." They are the ones that either get your round going in the right direction or keep it going when you need to make a par saver. I haven't been able to convert those putts all week and it certainly adds to the pressure that this week already provides. Fighting my way through the day yesterday I got myself to 1 under with 4 to play on another cold and windy day. I made a meal of the 2nd shot into the 15th and failed from the bunker to get it close enough and I just mentioned wasn't able to make that key putt to keep the round going. The strain and pressure of playing for the chance to have a job up here next year really told on me yesterday and I certainly had to deal with more emotion on the course than usual. I honestly think the last 5-6 weeks has aged me 20 years and what hair I had left is now scattered around the Queen and King courses here in the Cocopa Resort!! I three putted 17 and lost a little more hair before making par up the last for a 1 over 73, the same as day 1 around this course. That moved me from inside the cutline to outside the mark with only one round til the cut.

After a good chat with Dave, my caddy and Rach my wife and a few others, I felt a lot better about myself and what I was trying to achieve up here heading into cut day. I was putting way too much pressure on myself instead of going out there and giving my all and accepting the outcomes whatever happened. That is the attitude I took to the course today and was determined to have a great day with Dave no matter what the result.

It started well when my misfiring putter managed to hole a big left to right breaking putt on the first green for birdie. After playing the 2nd and 3rd holes really well but being unable to capitalise for birdies I found myself at the par 3 4th. After making a bogey there I worked out that the par 3's haven't been really too kind to me this week as I was now 7 over on them for the week. Very strange given I am usually under par on par 3's in a tournament week due to being a pretty solid iron player. Not this week though!! A bogey there isn't great but it was made worse when I missed from 6ft on the next for par also. On a day where I was starting at -1 for the tournament and -2 was the mark inside the cutline at the start of the day, being 1 over through 5 wasn't ideal. After a par at 6, I managed to make birdie at the par 5 7th and two more pars saw me at the turn in even par.

With 9 to play I was still at -1 for the tournament and figured that I would need at least 1 birdie to be a chance and maybe 2 to be safe. I flushed my drive down my 10th hole, a reachable par 5, right down the middle with a perfect angle to the green. When we arrived at my ball we were greeted with every golfers most disliked thing after smashing your driver down the middle, your ball sitting in a sand filled divot!! I still think it is the one rule that should be changed in golf. The divot is filled with sand to help repair the ground from a previous blow. We have a "ground under repair" rule in golf where you would get to take a free drop out of such an area should your ball come to rest in that area. I would argue that this sand filled divot is also "ground under repair" and thus you shouldn't be penalised for hitting the fairway. I hope one day this rule is changed allowing relief if you find a sand filled divot in the fairway…dream on Matt….

I decided to gamble and try and hit a 3 wood out of the divot, maybe not the smartest thing given there was out of bounds all the way down the right side of the hole. The gamble paid off and I hit a pretty good shot to just some 10-15 m short of the front edge. Would you believe it though, when we arrived at the ball it was in another divot, this time not filled with sand though. I played another great shot out of it and was left with around 4 ft down hill for the birdie which I made. An interesting hole that really gave us a boost as nothing had really gone our way on the hole, finding two divots but we still managed to convert the birdie. So in my head I was thinking we just need to continue to hit greens in regulation and give ourselves as many birdie chances coming in as possible.

I hit the next green but wasn't really close to the hole and then the following hole we thought I had hit a great shot into the top tier of the green only to get up there and see my ball had actually gone long. I was left with a very tricky little chip shot but the work I have been doing with Murray Lott on my short game is really starting to pay off and I played a great little shot to get the ball to about 6ft, a pretty good effort from where I was. So here I was again, staring at one of those "key putts", the putts I had struggled to make all week. If ever there was a time to make one it was now and I certainly was relieved when I saw it go into the hole. I had makable chances on the next 3 holes and despite hitting quality putts I didn't make any of them. So here we were, 3 holes left, 1 corner as I like to call it, and I realistically needed to make at least 1 birdie and two pars to hopefully be safe and through to the final 2 days. After two good shots on the par five we arrived at my ball in the first cut of rough just off the fairway. Hitting up to an elevated green where you can't see the putting surface, the fact that my ball was sitting in a little depression of sorts wasn't going to help. I hit an ok shot for line but it came out a little low and hot and went some 30 feet past the hole. This was probably the best birdie chance of the final three holes and it felt like I had blown it. When I got to my ball and had a look at the line, a few marker points really stood out to me along the line to the hole. It was kind of like a dot to dot, matching the spots and imagining my ball going over each of the spots and into the hole. I hit a great putt for speed and amazingly watched as it rolled straight over each of the spots and went in the right side of the hole for a much needed birdie!

I parred the par 3 17th hole and made my way to the short par 4 18th where I knew the major trouble was the tee shot with out of bounds down both sides of the hole. I got a new 3 wood this week from the Callaway van and have been using it this week. It is a great club and it didn't let me down here, crushing it up the middle. I said to Dave that I wanted to get this approach shot coming in a little higher, rather than the low flatter shot I had been hitting most of the week. I hit it perfectly and on a great line and whilst it was in the air I commented to Dave "this can't be bad!" I watched two of my playing partners up near the green both turn around towards me back down the fairway with a fair amount of excitement, so I knew it must be pretty close. As I got closer to the green they called me up to come and tap it in to get it out of the way, it was 2 inches away and a very easy final hole birdie securing my place in the final 2 days and at least some sort of Japanese Tour membership for 2014. It is now up to me over the next 2 days back on the Queen course to see how high I can finish and whether I can get some main tour starts up here. Patience and calmness won out on the course today and a total composure that I would give my all and accept the outcomes was a major factor in a good performance today.

So onwards we go, into round 5, looking forward to bringing you more stories from the long

Japanese finals started yesterday so I am now through 2 rounds of the gruelling 6 I am hoping to play. These are the toughest weeks of the year in the life of any pro golfer as you are not playing for money but just the chance to play for money on that particular tour the following season. This week sees us playing 2 round on 2 courses each over the first 4 days and then the field is cut to the top 90 players and ties for the final 2 days.

It is winter here, so you can imagine it is a little chilly, playing in layers and layers although it hasn't reached the crazy low temperatures that it did last year. Yesterday was actually a nice day and I even managed to take my jumper off for the second nine. I played really well yesterday and although I barely made a putt all day, my ball striking was good enough to get me through 16 holes in 2 under par. That is where things went a little downhill for me. I had only hit one bad shot all day, my first shot of the day to be honest, but this par 3 is where I chose to hit another poor shot, unfortunately it was a really poor one. I found some out of bounds and when my 3rd shot from the tee with my 2 iron missed the green also, I had a really tough up and down to try and make a double bogey. I didn't manage it and in fact I made a great putt for a triple bogey. Wow this game can be brutal, 4 and a half hours of grinding to get to this point for it all to be gone in the space of a 2 second golf swing. I was truly gutted, particularly given how crucial every shot is this week!! I somehow managed to par the last hole which was a miracle given my head space wasn't great and signed for a disappointing 1 over par 73 and was in a tie for 143rd after day 1. Not ideal….

The positive of yesterday was that I played very well all day and that was what we, my caddy Dave and I, were taking into the 2nd round. Nothing changed today, I played great golf from tee to green but once again struggled to convert any of my chances. I was hitting good putts but they were all just finding different ways to miss. In fact after 3 holes I said to Dave, "I think we need to change tactics, I am hitting it well so I think I need to try and hole some shots to save on putting. I think 2-3 holed shots between now and the end of the tournament would be a great outcome!" Not surprisingly I didn't hole any shots but did manage to hit one close on the 7th and make a 4 foot putt for the birdie. The big shock of the day came on the 11th when I had just over 100m to the pin back into the wind. I had a 9 iron to hit a little half shot into the green but at the last second I changed my mind and went to a pitching wedge. I flushed it straight at the hole and Dave says "Get in!" One bounce and in it went!! What a thrill, especially after we were talking about holing shots. So that is 1 of the 2-3 we were looking for, which leaves a couple more out there over the remaining days.

I managed to close out in very windy and cold conditions today hitting some quality iron shots on the back of a great driving display. I shot a 3 under par 69 today to get to 2 under for the tournament and be back on the right side o

So I am a little sorry that there wasn't a fourth round update from the Aussie Open. It was a crazy day and there has been alot happening. I actually wrote a great piece on that day but unfortunately for the second time now the iphone app that I use shut down randomly prior to me finishing it and it didn't save a copy!! I will give you a much shorter version here.

The final round wasn't what I had hoped for and to be honest it was a day I would rather forget. It started well enough and I was playing solidly through the first few holes. I hit a shot from the rough on the 4th hole and didn't think much of it but as it turns out I actually hurt a tendon at the base of my right thumb and within two holes it was really hurting. I had the physio come out on course and give me some running treatment and some drugs but my confidence to hit the ball was shot. I couldn't commit, especially on the iron shots where I was making contact with the ground. I battled on to shoot 4 over, to add to a miserable run of Sundays in the past few weeks.

My day was going to go from bad to worse though as after another visit to the physio he decided we needed to call the doctor in to check the thumb more thoroughly. After his examination and my trip to Japan for finals due to start the next day, he decided that an xray and an MRI was required to make sure we had a recovery and injury management plan in place to hopefully get me through the gruelling q school finals. The MRI in itself nearly caused more injury as I was required to lie face down on the bench with my arm outstretched and hand in a clamp of some sort so it wouldn't move. And for those who haven't had an MRI before you aren't allowed to move for the duration which is around 30mins!! That was tough! The trip back to Royal Sydney to see the doctor was at least met with good news. He had been on the phone with the doctor who had examined the results and it was confirmed that I had only strained the tendon not torn it which was the absolute best news and outcome possible. The doc then strapped it up to immobilise it for the next 36 hrs and I was given my action plan. It was going to be crucial that I did all that was possible to look after it if I was going to be pain free to tee it up on Tuesday in a practice round.

I travelled over on a Jetstar flight and have to say the staff were brilliant, bringing me ice every 2 hours on the flight so that I could maintain the icing process to try and get the inflammation down in time. Japanese finals is in the same place as last year and couldn't help but think that my luck was out over here given that my campaign last year was seriously derailed by my kidney stone dramas and this year I hurt my hand two days before the first practice round!

The good news is that my hard work on the hand has paid off so far as I have been able to play both practice rounds without any pain whatsoever. What a relief that is, as I now feel like I have a fair chance to have a good crack at getting back onto the Japanese tour again for 2014. I haven't had any success at this venue as far as qualifying goes but this year I bring some solid form here and feel good about my game. Once again it will be a test of endurance over the 6 rounds starting tomorrow and it will be that age old challenge of trying to beat the course designer and limit the amount of bogies on the card. 108 holes is a lot of golf and certainly feels like it takes forever to make a dent in the number of holes remaining. At the end of the day I need to make some birdies but really a serious chunk of those holes needs to be pars. So this week is about patience and that if the birdie doesn't come, chalk up the par and go to the next. This is a marathon and I am ready for it. I look forward to bringing you stories from my week this week and also the week after next where I am off to Aussie Finals in an attempt to get a better catergory fo